Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County

Greg Nyhoff and the SCAP Letters, is He Stonewalling the Citizens or trying to “Control” the Story?

By Emerson Drake

When we heard Modesto was refusing to give either the letter it wrote to SCAP or SCAP’s response, to the Bee or the rest of us for that matter, we sent a Public records Request to the City in an attempt to get a copy of the letters.

The following was the City’s response:

From the Office of the City Clerk

Hello, Mr. Drake…

You indicated that you wanted an acknowledgement of receipt for your request, so I wanted to make sure it was being worked on. The City Manager’s office reports that the response letter received from SCAP will be released within the specified timeframe under the Public Records Act. Given the closure of the City for the Thanksgiving Holiday and furloughs, they will release the document on Monday, November 28th.

We wondered why the obvious delaying tactics by the City Manager Greg Nyhoff? Was he trying to dribble the story out in small bits and pieces? Maybe, maybe not.

We’ve all learned about the life cycle of a news story and delaying disclosure would be a way to deal with one leaked part at a time. Or at the very least seek a more “friendly venue” to disclose the entire story.

On November 16th, the very day this email was received, we were fortunate enough to obtain from a reader the letter SCAP sent in response to the City’s.

Apparently Mr. Nyhoff felt the need to advance his time-table since the “cat was out of the bag” so to speak. We only hope Mr.Nyhoff will come clean and stop trying to protect some of the people who sat in on his hiring interview and deal with the people who pay his salary. That is to say, the PUBLIC.